James Wan Says Warner’s DC Films Shake-Ups Are Not as Dramatic as They Seem

There’s been a lot of chatter surrounding recent changes at Warner Bros. regarding their DC Extended Cinematic Universe. Following the underwhelming debut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this past March, despite racking in $871 million worldwide, reports surfaced about executive shake-ups at the studio. Warner Bros. established a dedicated division called “DC Films,” which is now spearheaded by DC Comics chief creative officer Geoff Johns. But that didn’t seem to be the last of it. Last week, the New York Post reported that Warner Bros. would be undergoing even more management changes over the next six months.

Aquaman director James Wan dispelled rumors of a dramatic shake-up in a recent interview with CinemaBlend. Wan, who’s currently promoting The Conjuring 2, said the changes aren’t as crazy as they might appear in the rumored reports and voiced his excitement for Johns’ work with the new film division. His full quotes below:

To be honest, it’s not as dramatic as the press is making it out to be – from what I’m seeing. And right now I’m seeing everything as more an outsider looking into this box. So from that perspective, it’s really cool that it’s not crazy, crazy dramatic. I think it’s great. Geoff Johns is super talented, super smart. […] Whatever these “shake-ups” are, I don’t actually see them. If anything, like anything to do with my fricking career, I read about them in the trades, I read them all over the internet! And people are asking me this and I’m like, ‘Huh? What?’ [laughs] Just like I found out all these things. And so I’m not privy to necessarily what’s going – partially because I was so busy with trying to finish up Conjuring 2.

While Wan claims the executive shifts aren’t as drastic as they appear, he also admits he hasn’t been very involved in the process, which makes sense. Aquaman likely doesn’t start filming until next year while a handful of other DC projects are currently in production ahead of it, including Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Womanand Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Plus, we likely won't get more insight into the studio’s changes until Suicide Squadopensthis August, the next film expected to kick off the DCEU following the tepid Dawn of Justice. How the David Ayer supervillain movie performs could dictate the future of DC Films, which additionally includes Snyder’s Justice League, Part Two,The Flash with rumored director Rick Famuyiwa, Shazam, Cyborg, Green Lantern Corps and two untitled films, one of which may be Ben Affleck's solo Batman movie.